Guess what game this is from. Go on, I won't ruin it for you (well, spoiler tag ahead...since its related to my rant)

Spoiler

It's Guild Wars 2

So I'm playing the above mentioned game today, when I realized that the fireplace there and the whole setting is really relaxing and beautiful. Only... no one that I'm aware of has stopped to see it. In fact the areas of the world that don't have any gameplay elements seem very deserted. In contrast, I just spend over half an hour sitting on a bed in that room, randomly chatting with my guild while I could. No one even came close to the Inn to check it out.

So, is that what gaming is about these days? I mean from one point of view I understand - gamers follow the gameplay elements - and some places (like the above room in the inn) have no gameplay elements in them. As far as interaction goes, that might as well be a blank white room. The only difference is that it looks relaxing, and interesting.

But what about gaming for just interesting things? Just cause you find something interesting, and not because it has some in-game effect? I tried offering a random "I'm hiding, try to find me" challenge, with a small in-game currency reward just to see who's interested. Well, no one was. Maybe it was kinda late, so fewer people were around, but none of them showed an interest in doing something just for the fun of it, that didn't contribute any sort of real reward or achievement. Maybe if I offered significantly more money someone would be interested, but then it would be for the money only.

I can't even describe the amount of time I've spend jumping up places where nothing of interest was to be found. It works best with a friend of mine who also has this interest in the abstract sort of exploring for the sake of just seing new things. We'd see where we can get than just sit there and be like "ok, this is awesome, didn' think we'd make it up here."

Sure, getting your character in games to be more powerful, to have the coolest looking gear etc. etc. is one part of the fun. But I feel like a lot of gamers don't even care about anything else. It's almost taboo in mmorpgs for example, to stop and care about anything other than your dmg/support/heal abilities. Everything else is just considered meaningless.

Even in some single player rpgs. For example, I have seen threads of people complaining that Skyrim housing doesn't do anything. But that's not true - its just skyrim housing doesn't provide much in the way of increasing your dps, or provide you with unique abilities. Yet, I've spend a lot of time just sitting in front of the fireplace there too, doing nothing but .. well, sort of role playing. Immersing myself in the atmosphere is a better way of putting it. (this might also be linked to the fact that i've never owned a home with a fireplace, but regarless!)

It just feels like a lot of art, design, and generally cool environments kinda go wasted due to the prevalence of meta-gaming, which basically makes you play just so you can become a more efficient killing machine. I know, MMOs are not really a good example. Dragon age for example had your camp, which was kinda useless but developed characters, so it was well received. But Bioware games focus much more on a fixed story (With few branching choices) than an open world rpg like skyrim or a MMO like GW2. Ambiance and story go hand in hand there, but players still look mostly to complete what the game rewards them for.

I feel like one of the culprits is achievements - they have conditioned many gamers - do this, get achievement! instant-reward! No instant-reward? No need to do it.

There was some picture floating around.. let me find it... yeah: http://www.nerfnow.com/comic/450 .... the aspect illustrated there is how I feel alot of gamers are these days. Jump in for some quick time to earn some xp/gold/gear, don't care about beautiful landscapes that dont have anything truly important in them, and then leave. (it's even funnier considering how much these very same gamers who avoid all non-gameplay related things, including beautiful scenary will then go on to demand extremely polished next-gen graphics from all new games.. but that's another conditioning alltogether)

Yeah, rant over, this could probably all be worded better and strung in a more meaningful and coherent sense, but there you have it. Gaming for the sake of having fun seems lost to me. It annoys me, and I hate meta-gaming. /rant.

Just enjoy it. I love Morrowwind, Oblivion and Skyrim for the art and environment. Some play to relax, some play to level and compete with others, other people play to research for their own games. Your game, you bought it, your choice

I for one like to enjoy the view and sound of a game and research the game play design.

When I played WoW, there were a few places that I liked to travel to and just sit and enjoy the scenery and the music. Usually, I'd take a fishing pole and just fish. On my server, there were actually quite a few of us that would do that. We weren't role-players or anything, but we just enjoyed quiet exploration and meditation in the wilderness.

The thing is, though, that after awhile the novelty of certain areas wears off. In the Cataclysm expansion, I absolutely loved the Deepholm zone, especially that quicksilver swamp area. But eventually even that place wore thin for me. It's a pretty pale imitation of reality. In real life, I live within quick driving distance of some of the (imo) most amazing scenery in the lower 48 states, so if I need my scenery and meditation fix it's more productive to log off and drive away. These days, when I sit down to play a game I want a different experience than sightseeing, so I don't really stop to smell the roses (figuratively speaking). I appreciate that the developers spend time and resources to make things look pretty, but that is just background stuff for me now. It's there, and in passing I'll appreciate it, but then I'll move on to kill the next beastie which is why I'm really playing.

I feel pretty much the same way. I’m not the biggest MMO player, but I used to be very active in Age of Conan, and I’d get frustrated by the grinding for gear mentality that a lot of people have. Even besides not enjoying the scenery, a lot of gamers will ignore most of the actual gameplay related content if it isn’t the most efficient for grinding experience or gear. For example, in AoC there are at least 20 six-person dungeons at max level that would provide a challenge to most players, but out of those only a few (the ones with the easiest or most efficient token grind) were ever used by most players. I like MMOs mainly for the small group dungeons, so when I play I try to experience as many of them as I can because that’s fun, even if I know they won’t drop any useful gear. Games shouldn’t feel like a job, where you’re stuck grinding the same content over and over just for money, that’s what real life is for.

Unfortunately, I think the only way to really change this way of playing is to either get rid of traditional leveling and progression entirely, or make rewards for everything, such as unique and useful drops in every dungeon, hidden chests in nice looking areas, etc. I think Guild Wars 2 does this better than most games with the skill points, vistas, events, and other points of interest scattered all around the world to reward exploration.

Never forget that MMOs are revenue machines, not just "enjoy the environment" software. No competition or leveling mean no mmo sport and thereby no revenue. Cash flow and bigger and better mounts or levels for the paying crowd or get ready to fire the employed people

I think there are just many different kinds of players, but some are much more visible like those PvP players who complain about everything if they loose or the people who just want to get maxlevel asap and copy the current "in" method of fastleveling on some crowded place or since the death of the subscription model also those stupid people who throw a few thousand $ per month in the cashshop and cry that out loud to declare how "good" they were at the game, which naturally nobody believes.

But there are also people who like crafting and resale who keep the ingame economy flowing, the item collectors who want to own everything and are just working on this somewhere or those silent explorers who want to see every tiny bit of the map at least once which you naturally wont see cause they are on some weird place nobody else goes to or even people just using the game as a glorified chat. All those also pay for the game or a subscription or if they feel the need buy some things in the cashshop.

I can't even describe the amount of time I've spend jumping up places where nothing of interest was to be found. It works best with a friend of mine who also has this interest in the abstract sort of exploring for the sake of just seing new things. We'd see where we can get than just sit there and be like "ok, this is awesome, didn' think we'd make it up here."

Ambiance and exploration is one of the things I enjoy most about games, though it depends on the game.

Even in some single player rpgs. For example, I have seen threads of people complaining that Skyrim housing doesn't do anything. But that's not true - its just skyrim housing doesn't provide much in the way of increasing your dps, or provide you with unique abilities. Yet, I've spend a lot of time just sitting in front of the fireplace there too, doing nothing but .. well, sort of role playing.

I never played Skyrim, but back in Morrowind my house was lined with the helmets of 30-40 Vivic guards in a neat row. They would attack me on sight.

One of the most enjoyable gaming experiences I've had was finding that Vivic had locked vaults filled with gold and really expensive armor, me locating the guy who had the key (by accident, iirc), using telekinesis to loot the key out of his drawers without him noticing (he was standing next to the drawers), sneaking into the vault, unlocking the door, re-locking the door, killing the guard inside the vault, and proceeding to loot everything while the other guards watched helplessly on the other side of the iron bars, not having the vault key to get in. Once I was loaded down with loot, I waved goodbye and teleported out.

The loot was nice, but the victory was nicer, especially considering I did it without a quest telling me to go do it. I'm sure there probably was a quest somewhere that would've pointed me in the right direction, but I stumbled across it on my own.

Part of your complaint has to do with the types of players. Every hear of Bartle's Test? He later expanded it into a 3D grid instead of a 2D one.

MMORPGs, based on how they are set up, and how the community grows, and how the staff interact and affect the community, tend to skew in different directions catering to different player groups more than others. Because the focus of many MMORPGs tend to be combat and competition and guild raids, a cycle is established (sometimes unknowingly) that draws more of the kinds of players that focus on DPS over environment.